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Fnord666 writes:

The mechanism for reading DNA and decoding it to build proteins for their needs is common to all animals and plants, and is often hijacked by cancer.

Researchers used an advanced form of electron microscopy called Cryo-EM, for which the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded in 2017, to zoom in and capture images of the reading mechanism in unprecedented detail.

The discovery of exactly how the molecular mechanism works -- published in the journal Nature -- could open up new approaches to cancer treatment.

Scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, captured images of molecular machinery called RNA Polymerase III in the act of transcribing a gene in exquisite and unprecedented detail.

[...] Cryo-EM is so powerful that it can take pictures of tiny molecules -- approximately 5 nanometers or 20000th of the width of a human hair -- at almost an atomic level.

It allowed researchers to see for the first time how components of the RNA polymerase III complex and accessory molecules interact and communicate with each other, suggesting how drugs might be employed to split the complex up.

The new study captured the molecular machinery in the act of binding to DNA, separating the two strands and getting ready to transcribe the DNA code.

Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/01/180117131147.htm

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